SHI Xianyou, CHEN Han, GUO Lucun
(College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing 210009)
Abstract:High flexural strength and fracture toughness ceramics were prepared by adding elongated α-Sialon grains, which were synthesized by pressureless sintering. The effect of seed addition on the densification, mechanical properties, and microstructure development of the samples was investigated in details. Results showed that the addition of seed crystals can facilitate the growth of elongated grains, and promote the flexural strength and fracture toughness of the ceramics.Compared with matrix materials, the maximum fracture toughness and flexural strength are enhanced by 13% and 68%,respectively, which are up to 9.7MPa·m1/2 and 636MPa.
Keywords:Sialon, seeding, fracture toughness, aspect ratio